Star's claims that RJR ripped off its supposedly safer method for curing tobacco have been banging around the federal trial and appellate courts for more than a decade without quite hitting their target. Now the two tobacco companies appear finally to have called a truce.

In the seemingly never-ending saga of Rambus's patent war against chip makers, Rambus was slapped hard on Friday by a Delaware federal district court judge, who accused the company of conduct that was "obstructive at best."

We called Mendelsohn after reading about a newly disclosed, eight-country probe of four pharmaceutical companies and noting the rapid upward spiral of recent FCPA settlements. His prediction: FCPA defense is only going to get hotter.